Schwedler, the county’s other superintendents and MPS Board President Jerry Wasserman met with editors and a reporter from the Midland Daily News to discuss the millage.

“It’s what’s kept our doors open,” Schwedler added.

Voters will go to the polls Feb. 25 to decide whether to renew the millage, which was first approved in 2009, for another five years. It is 1.5 mills on property taxes, which amounts to $1.50 on each $1,000 of taxable valuation. It raises nearly $5 million annually for Bullock Creek, Midland, Coleman and Meridian schools, and increases funding by more than $400 per pupil.

Midland Public Schools Superintendent Michael Sharrow said the enhancement millage accounts for about $3 million of MPS revenue each year.

“This is a very important part of where we’re going in the future,” he said. “Without it, we’re looking at being out of (fund balance) … and becoming a deficit district.”

MPS Associate Superintendent Linda Cline pointed out that voters are being asked to approve a renewal of an existing millage, not a new tax.

“This would not increase anyone’s taxes from their current bill,” she said.

Cline said the money raised over the last five years has been used to help pay for textbooks and curriculum enhancements, career and technical education, to protect class sizes, replacement of aging school buses, facilities maintenance and technological improvements.

Sharrow and Cline emphasized that the upcoming ballot issue is not connected to the two MPS millage proposals that failed last spring. Unlike those proposals, the Feb. 25 issue is sponsored by the Midland County Educational Service Agency and benefits students countywide.

“This is not an attempt to ask the voters in a different way,” Cline said.

Sharrow pointed to the very low turnout in the May election - fewer than 11 percent of registered voters - as the key to understanding why those proposals failed.

“I think there are enough ‘yes’ voters out there,” he said. “It’s really about getting them to the polls.”

To be approved, the proposal must get a majority vote across the county. It does not have to get a majority within each district.

Meridian Public Schools Superintendent Craig Carmoney noted that voters in his district also will be considering a 0.6 mill bond issue that would pay for various facilities, transportation and technology needs.

Questions about the millage renewal can be directed to the MCESA at 631-5892, ext. 107.